Our swimming pool

How clear is the water? When someone says “the water is so clear” what do they mean? To me, to my pampered-by-French-Polynesia eyes, clear water on a windless day means that you can’t tell where the water and air meet until something creates a ripple. It means that I feel slight irrational anxiety when I jump in the water because it looks like I’m jumping 15 feet down to the seabed rather than 3 feet to the waterline. It looks like this:



As I write this, we are anchored in the Tuamotus in 10 feet of water, over a bed of beautiful white sand. When the winds are light and the sun is out (or the moon is full) the water reflects off the white sand creating a swimming pool/tropical aquarium like atmosphere.



We can see fish, sharks, our anchor and chain, and also the beautiful patterns our anchor chain has made in the sand as the wind shifts our boat. All visible from the deck.



After dodging coral heads and reefs, anchoring among coral heads and buoying our anchor chain in attempts to avoid getting snagged, it is a relief to drop the anchor in pure sand with no coral heads in our swinging room.

After some squall ridden days it was also a relief to have absolutely no wind and clear blue skies to play in.

It probably takes some experience snorkeling or diving, and taking underwater photos to appreciate the clarity of this photo of Carol. To be 20 or so feet from someone and take this picture tells experienced eyes how clear the water was.  Clear, warm and inviting.